General atomic's superconducting high field test facility and initial performance

Abstract

General Atomic has established a high field test facility whose primary mission is to investigate the J-B-T and stability performance margins of commercial NbTi superconductor in the 10 tesla, 4.2 K region. This work is part of the overall DOE/MFE/MAGNETIC SYSTEMS effort to provide an adequate technological base for construction of superconducting toroidal field coils for the next generation of large tokamak fusion devices. The principal components of the facility are the coil/cryostat assembly, the helium refrigerator-liquefier/compressor system, and the gaseous helium recovery and storage system. The epoxy impregnated, layer wound main background field coil generates 8 tesla within its 40 cm diameter bore. The insert background field coil was layer wound with cooling channels provided by "barber pole" mylar conductor insulation. Ten tesla is generated within its 22 cm bore. The initial performance of the facility will be discussed. Future testing calls for operating test coils with implanted heating elements to simulate mechanically induced perturbations. The normal zone growth and recovery behavior will be observed for various disturbance energies. This data will then be compared with results obtained from the transient recovery analysis developed at General Atomic.